For those of you who missed it, David Cameron took part in a Newsnight Special last night in which he was grilled by four editors/presenters for the entire duration of the show. There are still some people who doubt David Cameron both inside and outside the Conservative Party, but his performance on Newsnight was superb. He was strong, concise, stood up for what he believed in and was able to throw back every accusation made at him. You can watch it for yourself HERE.

Even when Parliament is not in session, the government's ability to screw up new initiatives remains as strong as ever, and this time it's the protection of children from abuse that's at stake. The new database containing the address, medical and school details of every child in the country, named ContactPoint, is set to be introduced next year. Not only have the government failed to clarify who will vet the users of the system (all 330,000 of them) and who will police the system once it is operational, but the government have decided to keep the children of celebrities and politicians OFF the database. The extract below is from today's article in the Times:

Concerns have been intensified by the admission that, while every child under 18 in England will have a record, ministers have allowed some children to be given extra protection. The “shielding” mechanism will mean that information on the offspring of some politicians and celebrities could be left off the main database. A spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) said that shielding would be available for “children whose circumstances may mean that they, or others, are at increased risk of harm”. She added: “These decisions will be taken on a case-by-case basis and will be based on the level of threat posed if their information becomes more widely available.” Children’s rights campaigners and computer security experts say that this amounts to an acknowledgment that the database will not be secure. “The Government acknowledges the risks by instituting these protocols on celebrity and vulnerable children but all children are potentially vulnerable,” Terri Dowty, of Action on Rights for Children, said.

Until recently, most banks give graduates a bit of a breather once they finish studying, knowing that they don't have a lot of cash lying around. Interest-free overdrafts are commonplace in student bank accounts and the interest-free limit normally comes down gradually after completing a degree. HSBC have decided that this is a bad idea and have today announced that graduates will start paying interest on their overdraft as soon as they leave university at a rate of 9.99% – unless they pay a flat rate of £10 a month to HSBC for the privilege of keeping their overdraft free of interest charges.

So who is your sympathy with? Should we feel sorry for HSBC, who are being messed around by students that are slow to pay back their overdrafts or who open multiple accounts at university to take advantage of the interest-free overdrafts from different banks? Or should we side with the students, who have had this announcement sprung on them without warning and are already under enough financial pressure as it is?